Delivering History #2

Of the hundreds of former carriers I’ve heard from in the past month, almost all of them have something in common: They’re proud of their work.

Listening to Cullen Duoto, 88, talk about his days delivering the Houston Post in the 1930s, I can hear that in his voice.

With a touch of pride Duoto says he was the youngest paper carrier the Post ever had when he was hired in 1931.

That first route included about 75 customers in the Sixth Ward bounded by Center, Henderson, West Capitol and Sabine Street. For the 10-year-old boy, it didn’t quite get off to a promising start.

“The first month after I delivered the paper, I went by to collect. … Nobody would pay me. They said, ‘You’re not the paper carrier. We got a man in a Model T Ford that delivers our paper.’ ”

There was one scary moment, though. A couple of years into his time as a paperboy, Duoto was walking through Cleveland Park, located near where Spotts Park is today, where Waugh meets Heights Boulevard.

A group of men were gathered by a fire.

“One of the men got up and said, ‘You have an extra paper, boy?’

“I went out there to give him the paper and instead of grabbing the paper, he tried to grab my arm. So I slapped him against the face and ran across there hollering to [nearby neighbor] Mr. DeGeorge, ‘Call the police! These men over here tried to grab me.’ ”

The men fled.

But all in all, Duoto says he learned a lot about trust and patience during those years.

“In those days, during Depression times, a lot of people couldn’t pay the paper and I could see they really wanted the paper,” he said. “I’d carry them for three or four months.”

One such customer was an antiques dealer on Washington Avenue who couldn’t afford his subscription.

“He says, ‘I can’t pay you. Will you take this Queen Anne chair in its place for the six months and the rest of the year?’

“I brought it home to my mother and she loved that chair,” Duoto said.